Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

a little sleep, it was out of the question. Nevertheless, we would have to go to the office the following day. Is it any wonder that mistakes occurred from people working under that pressure?

I want to impress upon you the fact that it was a spirit of cooperation that carried on this work; followed by unity of thought and unity of action; and that, you must bear in mind, between people who spoke different languages, who had different thoughts, who had different philosophies; and yet they could get together when there was a great common danger confronting them. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: We have another major with us who insists that he stopped the Hun. He will tell us how he did the trick. Major Dillman. (Standing applause and laughter.)

Address by Major George L. Dillman

MAJOR DILLMAN: After all, the men at the front did some mighty good work, and the men at headquarters kept track of them (laughter); but the railroaders got the stuff from the ports to the stations, and that was part of our job. The navy landed in France one hundred per cent of the men who started for France. (Applause.) They did it by shrewdness, by tact, and they met every problem that came up. I stayed a few days in Brest just before coming home, and I found out in a general way how it was done. It was interesting to me, and I think it will be interesting to you. They devised some simple listening stations which could tell the direction of wireless workings within one degree. These stations were established on the south coast of Ireland, the south coast of England, the channel coast of France, the Bay of Biscay coast of France; and within fifteen minutes after one of the submarines came to the surface and commenced to talk-and they did a great deal of talking-the office knew exactly where they were and the convoys were steered by cipher messages away from them. It was simple, wasn't it? (Applause.) And the Germans have not found out yet how it was done. With all their submarines-and they had a couple of hundred when they surrendered-they had not caught one single convoy under American direction and only one under British direction, the Tuscania. The battle fleet of our navy went north. We do not know yet just where they were, but we know that they were with the British fleet-the fleet that stood between us and Germany for so long before we had the gumption to get into the fight. The troops that were taken over amounted to 2,079,000; carried on British ships, 1,007,000; the percentage that were convoyed under United States naval escort was 8234%; under British naval escort, 14.12%; the percentage under French naval escort, 3.13%. That is a remarkable showing. There is not anything especially spectacular about it, but in the chartroom of Admiral Wilson's ship he had men day and night, and he was ready for call at any hour; and to him is largely due the credit for the details of the convoy work. At thirty degrees west longitude the ships were put in Wilson's charge. From this ship wireless directions were sent, always in cipher, where to cross the twenty degree west longitude line, and there they were met by the destroyers. The convoy that I was in consisted of eleven ships and 38,000 troops besides the ships' complement. The skipper of the ship I was on was the son of Admiral Kemp. (Applause.) He was Clarence Kemp. The old admiral, you remember, was in command of the American forces at Tien Tsin years ago and when the French, German and English ships in that port decided that they would shell Tien Tsin, Admiral Kemp said, "Not by

a damn sight"; and the rest of the navies were a little disgruntled, but they didn't do it. His son is a very clever fellow. I introduced myself as having known his father, and I said when the destroyers came I would like to see them come, no matter what time of day or night it is. I got a call about 2 o'clock in the morning. I went up on deck and Kemp was there, and I saw these sheep dogs come in. They call them sheep dogs because we were the sheep and these dogs were around us and ahead and dodging in both flanks. When daylight came we had eleven of those fellows and we felt safe. We even felt sorry that we could not see a submarine. We did not see one, and most of the convoys that went over, did not see one. I found out the reason for it afterwards, and it was magnificent.

From the first the army had railroad troops, and they have established and built and maintained what are now the biggest terminal yards on earth. The yard at Montoir is the one that I am best acquainted with, although I have seen them all; and in that yard on about 2,000 acres of ground, there are 250 miles of track. The switching is done over humps by gravity. There are 200 acres of warehouses under roof-200 acres, mind you-and these warehouses are so far scattered that the fire danger is not appreciable, and there is enough outside storage for supplies not needed. In time of stress we sent out a train of supplies from that yard every fifteen minutes.

In October I was one of a commission sent up to the front to examine and make a report on the method of taking over operation of the French lines. When we came to the regulating stations we found that at every one of these stations they were getting supplies as fast as they could take them, and they had to say, "Not quite so fast; we cannot handle it." The men were being fed, and supplies were being gotten to those points well in advance of requirements. Beyond these points the armies took the supplies and the transportation corps had no business with it further. We went up to some of the rail-heads beyond the regulating stations for matter of information, because these regulating stations might be changed to the front and would have been had the pursuit of the Germans been continued further. But they had all the supplies they wanted as fast as they could handle them, which was a pretty good record. (Applause.)

Army work is team work, and army work is hard work. I have not seen any soft snaps in the army. The man who does not like to work

would better keep out of the army.

My troops were not picked. I was asked when we landed, "What can you do?" I said, "Construction work, maintenance work-some of it expertly, most of it efficiently, and any of it willingly." (Ap

plause.) I was one of the few commanding officers who had a chance to try out that work before we started. I organized my batallion for railroad maintenance, by building a small railroad in Virginia. The only way to learn how to do a thing is to do it, and we did it. My officers in that way got acquainted with their men and the men with their officers. We went sent temporarily to this dock at Montoir, and in a few weeks it was thought that our outfit would be sent to the front. When inquiries came in, the general superintendent, the division superintendent, and the road masters said, "We cannot get along without them." My men are there today, and they have been working eleven hours a day since the time they landed in France (applause); and they have been doing it willingly and with few kicks.

THE PRESIDENT: The next speaker is the beloved chaplain of the Grizzlies-Dr. Clampett. (Standing applause.)

Address by Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Clampett

REV. DR. CLAMPETT: To be present with you at this banquet of the Commonwealth Club of California is the greatest privilege extended to me since my return from across the seas, and it is likewise the most satisfactory, in that we are honored with the presence of the ladies.

My duty, as Chaplain of the 144th Field Artillery, so well known as the Grizzlies, included the censorship of the mail, and during my service in France I suppose thousands of letters passed through my hands. I am convinced, from my knowledge of the contents, that it was not the man behind the guns that won the war; it was rather the brave and noble women behind the men. (Applause.)

The spirit of love and the moral courage expressed in those letters was one of the most beautiful things that has entered my ministry. There was much worry, there was at times cause for the deepest anxiety, where the home had been broken up and the men who had been the props of that home were engaged in the grim and dangerous business of war; and yet there was no fear, no complaining, no forebodings; every letter was full of inspiration. There is at my side a lady who for ten days had every reason to fear that her husband was killed. She passed through the experience of a great bereavement, and you can in a measure realize the joy in having at her side a brave and noble husband.

I have been asked to speak of a chaplain's experience in the service across the seas. My words shall be brief. The duties which the war department saw fit to place in the hands of regimental chaplains were many, and in some instances, quite outside the usual duties of a clergyman. For example, I was the head of the athletic department. It was my pleasure to plan many boxing bouts, and the record was clean and sportsmanlike. During our service at Camp Kearny, the 144th Field Artillery carried off the chief prizes in the Fortieth Division, and throughout their regimental life they retained the honors. It was my business to organize and conduct the entertainments for the men, and as a result of the close acquaintance in their pleasures I can say that a nobler body of men were never grouped together. I can substantiate the remark made this evening both by Major Galloway and Major Dillman that the rank and file of the enlisted maintained a splendid standard. The spiritual side of my work brought into my life many sacred moments and there was an intense satisfaction in counseling with men in the moral and spiritual elements of their nature. There were hours that tried the souls of those men.

You may recall the three stages of seasickness as related by Mark Twain. The first suggested a strange feeling impossible to describe,

« AnteriorContinuar »